"It
is a film about a boy who knew what he loved to
do in life and was fortunate to make a living
doing it."

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Jacques Demy, the subject of this biography, was
undoubtedly a great filmmaker; his films were poetical
visions, filled with music, fantasy and magic. The
titular Jacquot refers to Jacques' nickname as a
child.

The French director was most acclaimed for his
inventive 1964 musical "The Umbrellas of
Cherbourg." Demy, a seemingly gentle and
reflective soul, was married to Agnes Varda, a noted
director herself, who bases this film on her husband's
unfinished memoirs. Before he died in 1990 he
collaborated and appeared in the film, offering
insights into his childhood experiences.

The movie is a look back at his most happy childhood
and some of the events that shaped his life. The
pivotal point revolves around how he was always
inspired by his imagination. The film follows young
Jacquot (played by a progression of actors) through
his Nantes boyhood as the eldest son of a
working-class family, whose father owned a garage and
was a hard-working mechanic. His loving mother stayed
in the kitchen and offered him full-support in his
yearnings to be a filmmaker.

Jacques's childhood experiences included the
following: his first attraction to puppet shows
(filmed in vivid color), experimenting in animation,
the songs he daily heard that later became part of his
films, his displeasure of technical high school, the
war and his reaction to the Nazi occupation of his
town, and his final departure to Paris.

Varda is extremely cautious in the way she presents
Jacquot, carefully rooting out all the implied
controversial meanings in his life. His childhood
experiences are really trite but through her
black-and-white photographs of that period and by
employing the cinema verite method, his life is
meticulously examined as to his relations with
friends, his father, and his mother.

It was interesting to see how Varda interspersed his
childhood memories with the legendary films he was
later on known for. By showing the "inspirational"
episode from his childhood and then his usage of it in
films such as "Lola," "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,"
"The Young Girls of Rochefort," and "Donkey Skin."

On some occasions she'll present a sentimental
impression from his childhood -- the small movie
camera (Ercscam) he shot his first stop-motion
film. Scenes like that come off as truly genuine but
are boring. Another such scene was from September 16,
1943--the horrors from the war he will always
remember, as his town was bombed and there were heavy
causalities. This made him a hater of war for the rest
of his life. The look in his saddened eyes as he is
being interviewed, indicates how he still remembers
that day with sadness.

But for all the niceties about him shown and
deservedly so, this biography seemed somewhat sterile
and unwilling to question a lot of personal things
about Demy's life. It seemed to be bent on being an
homage and final goodbye, without the benefit of
anything more critical. So we learn nothing of the
couple's relationship, the brain tumor from which he
was dying, or the stories circulating that he was
bisexual. The film seems as if it was a guided museum
tour, that will only show the director's dedication as
a filmmaker and nothing more about the man.

The film begins and ends with Demy on the beach,
looking out at the sea and envisioning how his life
turned out. It is a film about a boy who knew what he
loved to do in life and was fortunate to make a living
doing it. This film should inspire others to follow
their own beliefs but, unfortunately, it does not have
the magical qualities of a Demy film to inspire me to
recommend the film to any one but Demy fans. I count
myself as a fan of the great director.